Hockey has always been a young man’s game, but there has been a shift toward youth at the NHL level over the last decade. In 2007-08, 69 different skaters born in 1972 or earlier dressed for at least one game. In 2017-18, just 39 skaters born in 1982 or earlier managed to make their way into the action.

One of them was Oilers winger Mike Cammalleri.

After a distinguished 900-odd game career, he’s close to the end. New Jersey bought him out of the final two years of a five-year, $25-million contract last June. His next deal came with substantially less term and money—one year at a $1-million base salary, along with another $200,000 in performance bonuses. He lasted just 15 games with his new team before being traded to Edmonton in exchange for Jussi Jokinen, another aged veteran in a similar position.

Though Cammalleri and Jokinen posted similar numbers over the remainder of the season, the latter had it both better and worse. Worse in the sense that he...